Chapter 896

Looking at the emotional wittkov, I didn't express any opinions, just listened to his endless speech in silence. As soon as he finished, I stood up to comfort him and said, "Comrade chief of staff, please keep calm. Although the Germans are deliberately abandoning some unimportant towns in order to achieve the purpose of shrinking their forces and adjusting their deployment. But for us, it's not necessarily a bad thing. "

"It's not bad for us!" After repeating what I said, wittkov asked in surprise, "Comrade commander, I don't understand why you said that? You know, the Germans are setting a trap for our army. They want to encircle our sixth group army, even the whole southwest front army, and then eat them at one stroke. "

I said with a smile: "Comrade chief of staff, our army has not attracted much attention from the German army at present. While they are paying attention to the Voronezh front, the southwest front and the southern front, we can make a bold bet. "

"How can I make a bet?" Vitkov asked mistily.

With my eyes fixed on the map, I pointed heavily at the position of the command of Manstein with my fingers and said straightforwardly: "it is very difficult for the German army to defend from three directions at the same time. With their current strength, it is very difficult to establish a complete defense system in a short time. Therefore, we should take advantage of this rare opportunity to find out the loopholes in the German defense line, boldly intervene and attack zaborosh, where their headquarters is located. Can you imagine what kind of impact it will have on the German forces in Ukraine if we take down the German headquarters? "

When I said this, kirilov and Vitkov both put their heads together and looked at the map for a long time. Finally, witkov pointed to the map and said with a lot of misgivings: "Comrade commander, judging from the map, our current position is only 1780km away from zaborosh. Theoretically, it only takes one day or even more than ten hours to rush to the bottom of the city. However, in such a vast field, there is no suitable road at all. If we want to advance to the German headquarters, we can only approach our final destination by following the existing roads and seizing the towns along the way. "

I had considered vetkov's worries for a long time. As soon as he finished speaking, I immediately said, "Comrade chief of staff, the weather is very cold at present, and the average temperature has been maintained at more than 20 degrees below zero. The cold weather made the original muddy plain hard enough to carry tanks and trucks. In this way, we can safely and boldly follow the road that no one has ever walked, and make a surprise attack on the site of the German headquarters. "

"It's a bold plan, comrade o'shanina." After I finished, kirilov also began to express his opinion: "we can first send scouts to poloi and Kuban to detect the German defense in these cities. At the same time, the tank brigade should be prepared for the attack and launch an assault as soon as the result of the reconnaissance comes out. These two cities are only 50 km and 80 km away from the German headquarters in zaborosh. As long as we quickly occupy any of these cities as the starting point of attack, there will be no problem in seizing zaborosh. "

After listening to kirilov's views, I couldn't help but cast a curious look at him. At the same time, I said with approval, "the political commissar's proposal is good, I have no opinion." Then I told wittkov, "chief of staff, you should immediately send a telegram to captain travkin and ask him to lead two reconnaissance teams to move westward as far as possible to investigate the deployment of the two cities just mentioned by the political commissar. In addition, after you let Mr. bantailiev capture the city of Freda, only a small number of troops were left to defend, and the main force of the division immediately turned around and moved westward. We need to capture boloi in the shortest time. The andelius Division also followed suit. After our army successfully captured boloi, we attacked huri Abel, seven kilometers to the north, to ensure the right-wing security of the Bantai leiev division. "

"What about general gurdyev's 308th division?" After recording a series of orders I issued, vetkov stood in the same place and asked, "or should we let them stay in volnowaha to ensure the rear safety of our army?"

"The 308th Division will not move for the time being." For the first time, I felt that I could not command so many troops to fight in such a large area alone. After looking at the map again, I said slowly, "when the Bantai leyev division and the andelius division occupy the departure position, let the 308th division move westward to take over Bantai leyev's defense, so that they can free up their hands, Concentrate on zaborosh. "

When wittkov went to telegraph and called, kirilov, who was sitting next to me, suddenly said to me, "Comrade oshanina, I have something to discuss with you."

I don't know what kirilov meant when he said this. I looked at him with some surprise and said, "Comrade political commissar, if you have anything to do, just let me know. As long as it is within my ability, I will agree. "

"The leadership of our military headquarters is somewhat weak, and I think it should be strengthened." After kirilov looked at me, he continued: "at present, chief Vitkov's work is very heavy. We should find someone to share it for him."

"Comrade political commissar, who are you going to share his work with?" I knew kirilov would not put any disorderly people into the army headquarters, so I politely asked, "if it's the right person, I can let him take office immediately."

Kirilov nodded and then said, "the person I want to recommend, you know, is akhromeyev, chief of staff of bantailiev division. We have all worked with him for a period of time. We can see that he is a commander with both ability and rich combat experience. We can consider transferring him to the army headquarters. As for the post, I think we should temporarily appoint him to the post of director of operations. "

I don't have any opinions about akhromeyev's appointment as the commander of military operations, but I was puzzled by his abrupt recommendation, so I asked curiously, "if major akhromeyev works in the army, who will take over the post of chief of staff of the division of the 22nd Jinwei division?"

"Comrade o'shanina, you don't have to worry about this." Kirilov said with confidence: "general bandeleev thinks his former subordinate, Lieutenant Colonel Ilya, deputy head of the first regiment, is very suitable for this position."

When I heard kirilov say this, I suddenly realized that what I was worried about had happened. The contradiction between bantailiev and akhromeyev has become so irreconcilable that they have to replace the chief of staff with their own people. However, this is not a bad thing. For me, akhromeyev is a good deputy. Otherwise, I would not have wanted him and the second lieutenant training team from general meletskov. By transferring him to the army headquarters to assist wittkov in his work, we can improve the efficiency of many things.

Thinking of this, I immediately said to kirilov, "Comrade political commissar, please call Mr. bantailiev in person later and ask him to ask major akhromeyev to report to the army headquarters immediately. As for the selection of the new chief of staff of the division, let's do what he wants. "

Seeing kirilov's happy face, I added: "after major akhromeyev comes, he can take up the post of director of intelligence as well as the post of director of operations. Let him as soon as possible from the various units of the army to draw appropriate personnel, to enrich the two

When kirilov went happily to call bandeleev, I sat at the table and pondered. At the time of the most brutal fighting, we can still think and work together. Now the situation has just become favorable to our army, and private intrigue and rejection of attacks have begun to appear. If this situation is allowed to spread, then the combat effectiveness of the troops will be greatly affected. After the end of this campaign, if I can continue to stay in the position of commander, I must have a good talk with Bantai leiev.

After receiving the transfer order, akhromeyev immediately rushed to the army headquarters and formally exercised the rights of his director of intelligence and director of operations at 3 p.m. that day.

In the evening, kirilov and Vitkov and I were discussing how to ensure the logistic transportation of the troops. At the door came akhromeyev's voice: "report!"

"Come in!" I stare at the map in front of me and shout without looking up.

As soon as akhromeyev took office, in order to obtain the latest information in time, he left us a wired telephone and a telephone set, and he concentrated all the wireless communication equipment in the military headquarters in the communication room next door. He will send us the latest war report or notice in time. And now he actually came to send information in person, which proved that the information was very important. So I heard akhromeyev's footsteps come to me, stop, stand up straight, turn to look at him and ask, "Comrade major, what's the latest information?"

"Yes, comrade commander." Akhromeyev replied without expression: "we have just received a report from the forward reconnaissance team that lieutenant travkin, deputy battalion commander of the reconnaissance battalion, has unfortunately died."

"What?" Akhromeyev's words not only surprised me, but also kirilov and wittkov jumped up from their seats. Wittkov also grabbed akhromeyev's arm and asked nervously, "major, Captain travkin died. What's the matter? What's in the telegram?"

Akhromeyev did not answer his question immediately. Instead, he turned his eyes to me. Seeing that I nodded my tacit consent, he picked up the telegram and read: "when our reconnaissance team approached the periphery of huri Abel, we found traces of German fortifications in a distance. The captain said that in order to understand the enemy's deployment, we need to grasp a "tongue". With that, before it was dark, he left the reconnaissance team and began to run to the enemy's trenches. He got into the deep snow and crept forward in the snow very skillfully. Because the white camouflage suit he was wearing was exactly the same color as the snow, the comrades who watched him could not see him in just a moment.

But when he was only about 20 meters away from the enemy's position, the accident happened. The captain slightly raised his head, probably to see clearly the enemy's deployment, but was found by a German soldier staying in the trench. We heard a burst of gunfire, then the captain opened his arms and fell back. Then silence returned to the German trenches.

It's getting dark, and we can clearly see his immobile body, still holding his hands high, lying where he fell. Several Germans jumped out of the trench and tried to get close to his body, but we opened fire decisively and beat them back. "

"Comrade major," my nose was sore with the sacrifice of travkin. After sucking my nose hard, I asked akhromeyev in a loud voice, "Captain travkin's body can't lie in front of the German trench. Let the reconnaissance team, at all costs, snatch the captain's body back." After that, I turned to Vitkov and asked, "chief of staff, who else is in charge of your reconnaissance team besides captain travkin?" After thinking for a moment, wittkov replied decisively, "second lieutenant gretka, and second lieutenant gretka, who defected. He is the second person in charge of the reconnaissance force. "“ I see When I heard that the other person in charge was gretka, I felt a lot more confident. Although he was a defected German officer, his loyalty was not a problem. So he turned his head and said to akhromeyev, "major, send a telegram to lieutenant gretka immediately, and let him take over the command of the whole reconnaissance force, except for the body of captain travkin, Reconnaissance of the enemy's defensive positions will continue. "“ Yes After a loud promise, akhromeyev turned and walked out of the army headquarters. As for the sacrifice of travkin, kirilov could not help but sigh: "Alas, what a good commander he is. As long as he has two more battles, he will be a major. I didn't expect to die like this. What a pity“ Yes, comrade political commissar. " As soon as he finished, I went on: "when I led the troops north, travkin and his reconnaissance team were surrounded by the German army on a small mound. The situation at that time was extremely critical. As long as our support was a few minutes late, they would all die. I didn't expect that he would die in such a reconnaissance mission. "